GumDrops and Lollipops
by Devastation-Eve
Summary: Kadaj is a new student from Germany, ready to begin a new life in America as a Sophomore of Fresh Springs High School. There he encounters someone who catches his eye but can't have. On top of all that, his brother finds more ways to make him tick.


A/N: Okay! This is my first fanfiction posted on that is going to have more than 1 chapter. I'm taking a big leap from my normal stories, and I'm kind of nervous on what people think, so please be nice. I really want to finish this...and if people like it enough, I may post the sequel that I've already started on. XD Silly me. So, review if you feel the need to. I hate when people are pushed to review, so I won't do that. I'll just say...

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy: Advent Children characters do not belong to me. I do not own the movie or games Final Fantasy and I don't profit from this story. I do however...own this school they are in. P

Rated for a little more than occassional cussing and maybe a lemon later on. (Or will that be in the sequel...?)

* * *

Of course, after all that preparing this morning to not be late for his first day of a new high school, Kadaj found himself in the main office with his new backpack slung over his right shoulder, watching the principal sign the late pass. Kadaj sighed. _This always happens. Why did Yazoo have to NOT wake up on time? Why did he HAVE to make me late on purpose? He's such an asshole._

"There you are, Mr. Hikari. You're all set to go to…Ah, English. Have a nice…" Before the principal could finish Kadaj snatched up the pass irritably and stomped out of the office. He didn't care to look at the principal's sour face or hear his rude remark about Juvenile Delinquents because he didn't care to try to be polite. He _was_ angry, and he would show it in his next class whether he tried to or not, so why pretend to put up with _their_ fake manners?

He entered the class five minutes after the bell rang, interrupted the teacher in the middle of a sentence, and was informed that he missed one third of their first day lecture. Sophomore year was already turning out to be hell when the cutest blond (that happened to be sitting next to him) threw him the dirtiest look he had ever seen.

_What the hell is his problem? It isn't my fault I got in late. My fucking brother made me late, not _my _own laziness. Though it isn't something new…_He sighed softly, sparing the blond curious glances all threw class though, because he couldn't seem to stop looking at that interestingly cold face…

"Why were you staring at me in class?" The blond asked right as Kadaj turned to leave the class. Surprised, Kadaj almost dropped his bag, trying to balance it on his right shoulder. _Damn it…I hate being left-handed…._

"I wasn't. You were the one who shot me a dirty look when I sat next to you." Kadaj snapped. The blond's voice was nice, though. It was just right; passive, uncaring, and a smooth coolness flowed through it. It was just like the rest of him, nearly perfect. Hadn't he pissed Kadaj off or had this rotten attitude with him, he _would_ have been perfect for the new boy.

"So what? My best friend sat there, and he moved far away. So it isn't your business. Go back to your own school, will you?" The blond took his own bag, brushing past Kadaj coolly. Kadaj felt his anger rise, and he grabbed the blond by his swinging wrist, pulling him back with all the strength he had. The blond stumbled slightly, catching the corner of the desk of the absent teacher, long gone from when the bell rang.

"Let go of me. You're going to make me late, then we will have a problem." The blond warned. Kadaj shook his head, turning him around to face Kadaj.

"No. I don't give a shit if you're late. I hope you are; that will at least make it even, because if you're late, so am I. Listen, I don't know what your problem is with me, and I don't care if I sat in your friend's seat. I don't know you, and you don't know me. So _don't_ be so quick to judge." Kadaj let go of the man's wrist, dropping his hand by his side. The blond's cool blue eyes flickered over Kadaj's young face, then they seemed to soften a little, and the blond haired one nodded.

"Fine. We'll start over tomorrow, or possibly if we have any other classes together. I'll leave you alone, and you leave me alone." The blond began backing up, avoiding everything in his way as if he could see behind him. Once he was at the door, he gave Kadaj one last soft look before turning and heading out the door, leaving Kadaj baffled in the empty room.

_My first period was weird…I hope my second…and the rest of the day…is more normal…_

Kadaj found his next class miraculously before the bell rang and sat in the back row next to a small girl with short dark brown hair. The girl glanced at him when he sat down and gave him a warm grin before exclaiming,

"Hi! I'm Yuffie! You must be the new exchange student from Germany! That is soo cool! We're pretty boring here in America compared to Germany, huh?" Kadaj blinked at her friendliness. So far, he's gotten a lot of strange looks, and even a confrontation, but never has someone seemed this over all happy. It was kind of refreshing. Kadaj gave her a small smile, the biggest he could manage.

"No, not at all. This is actually pretty exciting compared to my home town." He replied, leaning over to pull out his new notebook and slap it onto the table. A few students turned to look at him, putting off their chitter chatter to stare at the new student. He blushed a little, looking away and back to Yuffie to see her happy expression.

"I've never heard anything about Germany, really! What is it like? What city are you from? Is there a lot of crime?" Her eyes widened and she leaned closer to him with wide eyes and a serious face. Kadaj laughed nervously, scooting away.

"I'm from Braunschweig, it's around the middle of Germany. It's…different than here. Very different. It's strange to hear everyone speaking a different language. I wouldn't say there is more crime here or there. But the population is over 158 thousand." If possible, Yuffie's eyes grew wider and she let out a soft "Oooh", followed by a louder "wow!". Kadaj laughed softly, but before Yuffie could ask anymore questions the bell rang and the professor of chemistry walked in, announcing to the class that the lesson of the day would start, and to take out their notebooks. Kadaj beamed in accomplishment in his mind, softly boasting to an imaginary Yazoo. _Ha! Take that, Yazoo! I can too do something right!_

"Ah, and we have a new student." Kadaj's face dropped as the professor turned to look for Kadaj in the rows of students.

"Oh! He's right here!" Yuffie called, pointing her two index fingers at Kadaj, taking Kadaj's arm and waving it wildly for him. Kadaj felt his face redden and he hung it, groaning. The professor perked up, grinning.

"Great! This is our foreign exchanged student, Kadaj Hikari. He's joining in our class in the middle of the semester because he just moved here only two weeks ago. He's not a citizen in the United States though, not yet. Am I right Kadaj?" All eyes turned to Kadaj, as if it was horrible to be in the U.S. while not being a citizen. Was it like some kind of law? No. He had been sure it wasn't…but they sure made it seem horrid by their looks…Kadaj replied with a simple nod, keeping his eyes on the table, away from everyone else's. The professor was silent for a moment, then he nodded slowly and began their lesson. Every now and then someone would look at Kadaj, watching him write or asking him a question. Not many people seemed interested in who he was though, just where he was from. Kadaj supposed it was just natural to wonder about a different continent, though. A different city-like Braunschweig-far away from their own territory. By the end of the period, Kadaj was used to the eyes. He almost liked the eyes…they reminded him of the pleasant eyes in English.

"Say Kadaj, you should sit with me and my friends! You have 5th period lunch, right?" Yuffie called as the bell rang and Kadaj was walking out the door. He stopped, turning his head to look at Yuffie, then nodded softly. "Yeah…I'd like that." He replied, then pushed through the crowd of students in the door way to his third period class.

* * *

Third period civics went by uneventfully. Nothing went wrong, Kadaj got his work done, and no one asked him unnecessary questions or looked at him like a freak. There was one little thing that distracted him sometimes from the papers in front of him. The one with the blond hair and blue eyes had stopped in his classroom to deliver something to the teacher, and Kadaj just so happened to be passing by the teacher's desk at that time and caught his name. _Cloud._

The boy with platinum blond hair and ocean blue eyes as cold as an ice cube in the freezer had looked at Kadaj as he passed by, had even softened his eyes as he had in the English room. But Kadaj didn't think Cloud noticed his change in demeanor. He didn't even acknowledge Kadaj past just a look, but that was all Kadaj really needed. Supposedly, Cloud was a senior, which probably explained why he was taking College prep English, but Kadaj couldn't help but be slightly saddened.

He was a senior. Which meant that Cloud would be leaving in half a year, probably going on to college, and who knew? Yazoo and Loz might decide to go back to Germany by then, and Kadaj would have no choice but to go with them. Still, Kadaj had at least accomplished getting Cloud to look at him like he looked at everyone else. But…what did he have against being with people? _I wonder if I'll see him again today…_

Finally, after fourth period (which was so bad Kadaj asked the teacher to go to the nurse and faked a stomach ache for 45 excruciating minutes), Kadaj was heading to lunch. His headphones were blaring music that Yazoo had bought him the other day out of last minute shopping urge, in which they spent a lot of their shopping money for the month. But it didn't matter. That day, Kadaj had actually bonded with Yazoo for the first time since their mother died and they had to move here, to America. _God I miss her…_

Kadaj took a seat at an empty table, deciding to wait a day to try their school food. _Today has been bad enough…what if their food poisons me? Yazoo wouldn't even care…_But as he said that Yuffie came bouncing over, sitting down next to him with an "oof!". Kadaj tilted his head, giving her an odd look.

"Hiya! I thought you'd be sitting at an empty table Mr. I wear all black! Why don't you sit at our table instead of being all by yourself? It's a lot more fun than just this! Come on over!" Without waiting for a yes or no, Yuffie stood and skipped over to a table that Kadaj guessed was "their table". He stood with a sigh and began his walk over, biting his lip nervously as a boy with red hair trotted over to the table and sat down, followed closely by a silent, observant senior with stunning blue eyes. Kadaj felt his heart skip a beat. _Cloud…_

At the table, he was ushered to sit in between Cloud and a girl with a long braid of light brown hair, who smiled warmly at Kadaj. The silver haired teen smiled back. _Wow…She's beautiful…She must be Cloud's girlfriend. I saw the two walking so closely together in the hall…_

"Everyone, this is Kadaj Hikari. He's the new student from Braunschweig. Kadaj, this is Reno," Yuffie began the introduction. She pointed to the red haired boy sitting next to Cloud with two turquoise tattoos swept along his high cheekbones, a clearly Irish boy. He greeted Kadaj with a short wave and muttered "yo". Next introduced was Cloud, but neither boy spoke up to say they already met. "This is Cloud Strife," Yuffie said, giggling a little, "he's the most anti-social of us all. But he's really nice once you get to know him. I think you two have the same English class…" She trailed off, and Kadaj nodded. "Yeah. We…uh…met, sort of." He replied. Yuffie shrugged lightly, deciding to ignore that fact and continue with the introduction. The girl Kadaj was sitting next to with the long braid was Aerith, one of Cloud's best female friends, besides Tifa- who went to a different school with the boy named Zack that Cloud mentioned in English. There was also a boy named Vincent, who sat next to Yuffie almost protectively. He had long black haired that almost covered his oddly colored maroon eyes and he wore a long red cape that covered his pale neck. He regarded Kadaj with a nod and a softly spoken hello, but it seemed to Kadaj to be growled.

"We all normally talk about whatever comes up, so our conversations are pretty random." Yuffie explained to Kadaj, and Vincent's attitude all made sense when she "discretely" entwined her fingers in his. Reno suddenly brought up a subject out of no where and they began to discuss someone named Rufus who Reno seemed to have a crush on, because every time they mentioned something about him specifically Reno blushed a little and went silent.

To Kadaj's surprise, in the middle of them all talking, Cloud turned to Kadaj directly. "Hey, what is your schedule for the rest of the day? We may just have another class together if you have any college prep classes or advanced classes." It took Kadaj a moment to register that Cloud wanted to see his schedule, and Kadaj felt his face grow hot for the third time that day. He handed the blond his schedule and it was read and reread before given back. _Was he memorizing my schedule…? No…that would be stupid. Why would he do that, Kadaj? Keh. _

"Yeah, actually. We have next period together, and eighth. So we have four classes together tomorrow, too." Informed Cloud. Kadaj put away his schedule and muttered something even he didn't understand, causing Cloud to chuckle a little.

"You're pretty shy. You had me thinking before that you weren't so coy. You weren't hesitant to tell me off this morning." The smirk in Cloud's voice was noticeable, but there was no expression on his face, as always. Kadaj felt his face heat with a blush again and he dipped his head down to hide behind a veil of silver hair so Cloud wouldn't see his reaction. When the bell rang minutes later Kadaj was wondering where the time went. His stomach growled unpleasantly, causing Vincent to half-laugh as he walked by Kadaj and heard his stomach.

"Should have eaten." Vincent muttered, calling his farewells for the day to the gang before exiting out the lunchroom as a group of students past. Cloud looked at Kadaj for a moment, his eyes lingering a little longer than intended, then he nodded at Kadaj.

"See you next period." Kadaj tried to follow Cloud with his eyes, tried to watch which way he went so he could plan to run into him in the hall, but the blond was as good as lost in a group of students just as Vincent was. Soon the whole table was clearing out and Kadaj was reduced to walking by himself, lost in his thoughts of the tall blond haired senior.

_How boring._ Kadaj thought as he arrived early to class, not a soul in the classroom but the teacher, who clicked away at her computer while he sat, yawning. _Not one person is in here…this is so different from my fast paced life in Germany. I mean…well…a lot of things _have _happened in such a little time…_his internal rambles were cut short when the bell rang and all the students from the class came pouring in, chattering excitedly about something unimportant. Kadaj lay his head on the desk until Cloud came in and sat next to him, immediately taking out his math book. Kadaj watched, then followed suit, hoping that this was a ritual that he would catch on quickly to. It was, he soon learned, and right then he knew that if Cloud was in this class every day with him, he would do fine.

"Alright everyone. You may start packing up and talk quietly amongst yourselves or do separate school work. I'm done with today's lesson." The teacher announced, walking from the front of the room back to her desk to go back to her computer. Kadaj sighed softly and shoved all his things into his messenger bag, pausing only to glance over at Cloud when the blond wasn't looking. A glance turned into a full on stare, however, when Cloud stood and stripped off his sweatshirt, shirt rising to expose briefly his abdomen and some of his hips that his pants failed to cover.

_Stupid! _Kadaj scolded himself and looked away as soon as Cloud's eyes drifted to him. _What if he saw you staring? You would ruin it! He would never trust you around that heavenly body again…What the hell!_

"Are you free later?" It was a simple question, one would think. But it took Kadaj a few moments to swallow whatever thing was piling in his throat to nod and reply with a yes.

"Then let's meet at your house. I saw you moving in; you live just down the street from me. See you at four." With that, Cloud turned and walked out, not giving Kadaj any time to object. He just stood in the classroom, staring at the doorway with his mouth slightly agape, eyes slowly widening until he felt them ready to pop out of his skull.

"My house…at four…?"

…_Shit! _

* * *

A/N: Alright! That is it for the first chapter. It was so fun to write. I wish I could have put more to it, but that seems good for now. Okay, a few things my friend (This goes to Roxie. I give all my credit to my friend Roxie for helping me find a way to clear this up.)  
Why is Kadaj from Germany?  
I don't know. I love characters in high school from Germany. Why, I don't know. I just do. So he's from Braunschweig, Germany.  
Why does Yazoo sound like such a jerk? It's totally not in character for him to be such an ass to Kadaj (from what Kadaj has told us in his thoughts)?  
Because it makes for good plot. You'll find out more later why Yazoo is such an ass to Kadaj and just how much of an ass he is.  
How old are they?  
Alright. Here are the ages of the characters that have entered so far (or were mentioned), because I probably won't put that in the fanfiction:  
Kadaj: 16  
Cloud: 18 turning 19 soon  
Yazoo: 21  
Loz: 29  
Yuffie: 17  
Aerith: 18  
Reno: 19  
Zack: 18  
Tifa: 18  
Vincent: 19

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!


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